Originally Posted by
cfimechanic
I also think people should look at other things on a resume in lieu of a degree. A good example would be Army helicopter pilots that are warrant officers. They might not have a degree but they have certainly demonstrated the character traits associated with having a degree.
In the army, aviation is supporting arm to their core capability (ground power).
In the other services aviation is either THE mission (USAF), THE primary combat power (USN), or an essential core component of the mission (USMC MAGTF). Those services require degrees for their flyers (who will be future leaders). The army also requires some flyers to be regular officers (ie college grads) to provide some future leaders.
You can debate how that relates to airlines, but in some cases the pilots are the ONLY college grad/white collar professionals among the army of folks turning a plane around at a station. Also a few pilots work in management, technical support roles where the non-aviation equivalents would be MBA's, engineers, computer scientists, etc. You could presumably adopt the army model where the line pilots are warrant equivalents.
But you're missing a key point.... Army warrant pilots don't HAVE to have a four year degree, but it's sufficiently competitive that I think most do at this point. Pretty sure they do need to have a 2-year degree or equivalent college credits.